affinity

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English affinite, also affenite,^[2] borrowed from Old French afinité, also affinité and Anglo-Norman afineté,^[3][4][5][6] and partly directly borrowed from Latin affīnitās (“relationship by marriage; neighbourhood”),^[3][2][7] from affīnis (“bordering on; related by marriage”),^[6][8][9] from ad- (“to”) and fīnis (“border, boundary”).^{[6][8][4][10]} The spelling was re-Latinised in early modern English.^[6] The French word is recorded from 1160 in the sense of a neighbouring region, and as relationship by marriage from about 1260.^[3] The Latin noun is related to affine, finish, confine and define.^[8][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Relationship by marriage, as distinguished from relationship by blood: about 1303, in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne, according to Barnhart,^[4] and before 1325 in the OED.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

Ayto notes that the abstract idea of relationship began in Latin as the concrete one of a shared border.^[8] In Middle English the word widened to blood kinship and the spiritual bond between godparents and godchild (1357), to close connection (before 1398), and to association or companionship and a person's followers.^[3][2] From about 1485 it meant similarity of nature, later specialised in linguistics for the kinship of languages (1599) and in science for structural likeness between species or minerals (1671).^[3][9] The sense of a liking or attraction between people dates from 1600,^[3] or the 1610s in Etymonline,^[6] and the chemical sense of the tendency of substances to combine from 1753.^[3] Johnson (1755) still put the marriage sense first and noted that it was opposed to consanguinity.^[12] Merriam-Webster records affinity as an adjective in biochemistry, as in affinity chromatography, from 1962.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1303 – relationship by marriage, in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne.^[4]
• 1357 – a kindred; spiritual relationship through baptism.^[3]
• before 1398 – close connection or interdependence.^[3]
• c. 1485 – similarity of characteristics or nature.^[3]
• 1599 – linguistics, kinship of languages.^[3]
• 1600 – liking for or attraction to a person or thing.^[3]
• 1671 – science, structural resemblance between species or minerals.^[3]
• 1753 – chemistry, the tendency of substances to combine.^[3]
• 1962 – adjective, in affinity chromatography.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A natural liking or sympathy for a person or thing, often with for or with: She felt an affinity with the old fishermen.^[13][7][3]
2. A close similarity or likeness between things, especially in structure, as between related species or languages.^[13][3]
3. Relationship by marriage, as distinct from blood relationship.^[13][3][12]
4. (chemistry) The tendency of substances to combine, or a measure of it.^[13][3]
5. The person or thing one feels drawn to.^[13]

Word family

• nonaffinity
• affinitive
• affinity card
• electron affinity
• affinity group

Related words

• affine
• final
• finish
• confine
• define
• fine
• infinity

Usage notes

In the sense of attraction, affinity is followed by of, between or with; in chemistry it is usually followed by for.^[14] Johnson noted that in the marriage sense it took with or to.^[12]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin